Shades of Red
by Thingbe
Summary: A series of drabbles focusing on Zelos and Lloyd.
1. Toast

**Hi there! Welcome to my shiny new Zelloyd drabble series! I hope you're all enjoying the new year so far. So this drabble/one-shot thing is dedicated to the lovely axisfiraga, for providing the prompt, and princespeach for just, I don't know, generally helping out.**

**Disclaimer: ToS is in no way mine.**

**x-x-x**

_**1: Toast**_

Zelos stands from his seat at the food-laden table just as he sees Lloyd beginning to reach for the beast of a roasted chicken in front of him. If no one else is going to make a toast, it might as well be him, right? The occasion certainly deserved it – he watched as everyone registered his movement and looked towards him expectantly, even a little impatiently, he might say. Lloyd especially; he'd been eyeing that chicken all night.

"So," he started. "Well, first of all, don't worry – this won't take long." A glance to Lloyd out of the corner of his eye, the brunet huffing in response. "I think tonight deserves a toast. It isn't every day two worlds are combined, after all. And you know, none of us would be here today if it weren't for Lloyd."

He looks around at the band of misfits he's managed to find himself a part of. Sheena, heir to the chieftainship of Mizuho; Presea, the littlest lumberjack; Genis, a very capable magic user when he isn't a brat; Raine, all at once a skilled healer, sister, teacher, and mother; Regal, the jailed duke; Colette, the other Chosen and one of the strongest people he's ever met; and then there's Lloyd.

Yeah, then there's Lloyd.

"I mean, I know I'm amazing," the table collectively rolled their eyes, "but it takes a bit of extra something to keep a ragtag bunch like us together and save two worlds at the same time. So," he raised his glass, the others following suit, "here's to Lloyd. Without you, Bud, well… the worlds would be pretty worse off." He smiles. Everyone around the table is smiling, actually, and he delights in the fact that Lloyd's cheeks are looking a bit pink. "To Lloyd!" they all say, raising their glasses and taking a drink. Zelos sits back down and looks through the food – he could have sworn there was risotto somewhere…

And then Lloyd is standing, scratching the back of his head bashfully – he's still blushing a little. Somewhere in the back of Zelos' mind is the thought that it suits him.

The brunet makes a toast of his own, thanking them, telling them it wasn't really him and it was a team effort, goes on about family and, as his speeches usually are, it's very touching. Zelos tries not to think about the expression on his face as he looks up at the country bumpkin who changed the world(s) – and the redhead's mind, which itself is no easy feat. He tries not to think about that _look_ Sheena's giving him and instead focuses on Lloyd.

They toast again and Lloyd practically dives into the chicken, barely having sat down before it's in his mouth. With some determined searching through the piles of food, Zelos finally finds that risotto, a victory sweetened all the more by winning a small wrestling match with Genis over the plate. They eat, those who are old enough drink, they bicker, they laugh – and for the first time in a long, long while, everything is _good_.

And if he and Lloyd are a little tipsy standing together on the balcony later, then, well.

He's _certainly_ never been one to kiss and tell, has he?

**x-x-x**

**Both princespeach and I agree that 'Littlest Lumberjack' should be a title for Presea.**

**Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you feel so inclined please leave any thoughts in the form of a review.**


	2. Talking

**Hello again! Sorry it's been a while, I've been having some trouble finding inspiration.**

**Enjoy!**

**x-x-x**

_**2: Talking**_

"I'm not interested in talking to guys," Zelos had said once. And, well, like a lot of things he could recall having said once, it wasn't quite the truth.

At that moment, though, with that group, it had been quite true – an obnoxious kid and an oddly-dressed teenager (years of careful study had not yet revealed the purpose of those white… things) were hardly interesting. He was in fact reasonably interested in talking to guys, or to girls, or rather to anyone in particular who stood out in just the right ways.

Lloyd, Zelos discovered, was rather good at talking. A bit heavy on the cheese in some of his more impassioned speeches, but good all the same.

This did not by any stretch of the imagination mean at all that Zelos' favourite thing to do with Lloyd was _talk_ to him, Goddess no.

**x-x-x**

**I'd love to hear if anyone has anything they'd like to see written! I'm always open for prompts and critique.**


	3. Running

**Hello again! I whipped this up while waiting for a seminar to start, so, well, here you go! I'd like to thank Lauren for giving me the prompt (albeit about a century ago) and axisfiraga, as always, for looking it over. I hope you enjoy it!**

**x-x-x**

**_3: Running_**

Running is a funny thing.

All his life, Zelos has been running - away, that is. From expectations, from responsibility, from mistakes, from the past...

Lloyd's life had been at a standstill for as long as he could remember. But once he found something to head towards, to run to... there was nothing that could fight being pulled in by his momentum and win.

It was tiring, running away. But being pulled in and turned around and dragged forward? It was exhilarating.

Lloyd gave Zelos something to run to, and he was never turning back.


	4. Spaces

**It's been quite a while! What with the HD re-release coming up soon, I've been thinking about this game again, and the following resulted.**

**Thanks as ever to princespeach!**

**x-x-x**

_**4: Spaces**_

It's the empty stretches, the negative space that Zelos notices the most. The gaps between words, between bodies; chasms and atoms both, and Zelos has learned pretty well by now that the closer you are, the further you feel.

And so what if he's kind of a tactile person. Lloyd is too, and in the moments between words there are hands on shoulders, fingers ruffling hair, just the barest hint of fingertips down an arm. When Zelos sees Lloyd he's painfully aware of the distance between them, so he closes it as best he can when the opportunity presents itself. This may result in indignant squawking about half the time, but, well. It would suffice to say that the other half is what makes it worthwhile.

Then there are the times at night, in a bed or in a bedroll or – a few miserable times – just on the plain dirt ground, when they're curled into each other, and Lloyd has long fallen asleep but Zelos finds himself unable to. Because for all they're clinging to each other like leeches, it feels like Lloyd is worlds away.

Those are the times where Zelos shifts, presses his ear against Lloyd's chest until he finds a heartbeat; and it grounds him, pulls him in tight, until there's nothing left between them but warmth.


End file.
